


The Library

by Burgie



Series: Katja Joins Team Good AU [48]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:22:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7848454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katja shows Alex around Fort Maria.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Library

Alex really only ever got the chance to sleep in when she was staying at her girlfriend’s place. The druids usually had her up with the sun, which Alex didn’t appreciate at all. It reminded her of when she’d had no choice but to rise with the sun to work.

But here, in the imposing fortress of Fort Maria, Katja had created dark curtains to block the sunlight and allow Alex to wake up when she felt like it. Not for the first time, Alex wondered what she’d done to make this demon girl so kind to her. Maybe that first version of herself had been an excellent lover or something. Or Aideen just had a weird sense of humour.

Katja was waiting for Alex with breakfast in the small dining room when Alex finally emerged from the bedroom.

“Morning, lover. Sleep well?” asked Katja.

“You know I did,” said Alex. She pressed a sleepy kiss to the top of her girlfriend’s head before sitting down in the seat opposite her.

“I forget what you like to drink with breakfast,” said Katja, blushing and pushing her hair behind her ear. “One you liked coffee, another only liked tea, there was of course one who started the day with fairy wine…”

“I like the druid energy potion,” said Alex. “You probably don’t have any, though.”

“Maybe not, but I’m sure that the library will have some books on druid recipes,” said Katja. She said it in an offhand way, just mentioning a possibility. But Alex’s eyes lit up, and she didn’t need any beverage to wake right up.

“You mean the library of Alexandria?” asked Alex, trembling with excitement.

“Nova Alexandria, yes,” said Katja. “Fortunately, it’s a twin to the one in Alexandria that burnt down. Nobody knows about it, though, because of the wards protecting this place.”

“You mean all this time, I could’ve been exploring that library and discovering knowledge lost for hundreds of years?” asked Alex.

“Yes,” said Katja, and laughed at her girlfriend’s enthusiasm. “I just didn’t tell you because we were more occupied with other things. But now that we’re officially together, why don’t I give you a tour of the place? After all, you built it.”

“I did?” asked Alex. “Oh, right, former version of me.”

“Yes, in one of the Roman cycles, you built this place,” said Katja. “All of the wards are yours. And mine. This was our place. Until Elise came along and wrecked it all.” She dragged her fingernail over a crack in the marble tabletop. “But, that was centuries ago.”

“It’s kind of ours again now,” said Alex.

“Yes, only one of the wards went wrong and started trapping people here,” said Katja, and sighed. “I’m working on freeing them, though. I just have to get those darned doors open.”

“You mentioned a tour?” Alex prompted.

“Yes! Sorry, I just got lost in memories,” said Katja, and laughed. “I make fun of Fripp for doing it and then I go and do the same thing. You eat your breakfast and make yourself look presentable, and I’ll decide on what I want to show you.”

Alex smiled as she ate her breakfast. Katja had been so cold at first and unsure of everything, but now she was so different. She had so much more confidence with Alex now, especially in this place.

After breakfast, Alex brushed her hair and hoped that her normal outfit was presentable enough for her girlfriend. It had been yesterday, and Katja always wore the same thing anyway, but sometimes Katja could be so fussy over her girlfriend’s appearance.

Today, it seemed, wasn’t one of those days. Alex found Katja standing at one of the balconies overlooking the place. The lost people still wandered around, but none of them noticed the woman watching them. Or each other.

“Are you ready?” asked Katja, turning away from her musing and instead looking at her girlfriend.

“Yeah,” said Alex. “Still trying to think of a way to free them?”

“I’ll think about that later,” said Katja. She took Alex’s hand. “Right now, we have a tour date.”

“That feels so nerdy,” said Alex.

“Says the woman who was all sparkly-eyed about the library this morning,” said Katja.

“I didn’t mean that like a bad thing,” said Alex. Katja smirked.

“Sure you didn’t,” said Katja.

Katja led her girlfriend out of the large structure and into the rest of the place. The lost people milling about aimlessly had a glazed sort of look in their eyes, and Katja was sad to see it. This place had been so beautiful and wonderful once. And now it was a place of horrors and nightmares, something to warn young children about.

“Is that the me who built this place?” asked Alex, drawing Katja out of her thoughts. She was looking at a large statue of a woman with a lightning-shaped sword in one hand and a book in the other. She looked like a warrior woman, with runes of lightning decorating the horse that she sat upon.

“Yes,” said Katja. “The statue is, of course, only a monument and not an actual depiction of you. The real you wouldn’t have had a sword so close to a book.”

“Any depictions of us?” asked Alex.

“Wait until we get to the library,” said Katja, smiling at her. “That’s my main influence. I remembered every book I read from that old library, and I had read every book. Not much else to do when you’re waiting for the next cycle to begin.”

“Until you became a model,” said Alex.

“Yes,” said Katja, grinning at the memory.

Although Alex had been here with her girlfriend many times before, she hadn’t ever actually set foot out of the castle. The ground was made of polished sandstone, just like the walls, and a few smaller buildings dotted the place. She didn’t know if they’d been homes or businesses, but her girlfriend didn’t seem to remember or care. Instead, she talked about how this had been their home and their safe place and how they’d taken walks here every evening while the place still clung onto the heat of the day.

“What are those doors?” asked Alex, having noticed a few large doors set into the walls. They were each decorated differently.

“Huh? Oh, those,” said Katja. “They’re vaults containing secret treasures. Like the vault of Araxa.”

“The vault of Araxa,” said Alex. “That’s very specific.”

“It held the horn of Araxa,” said Katja. “Now the horn is in here somewhere. I can’t get at it, though, because it’s in a vault that only Mr Sands can access.”

“He could get in here?” asked Alex, taking on a defensive stance.

“Oh no no no, not anymore,” said Katja, putting her hand on Alex’s arm. “I altered the wards to keep him out before I started bringing you here. I didn’t want him barging in on us.”

“Good,” said Alex, relaxing. “So the horn is currently inaccessible, then.”

“Yes, unfortunately,” said Katja. 

“No, it’s a good thing,” said Alex. “That horn is too powerful. In the wrong hands, it could be disastrous.”

“You used it once,” said Katja. “In one of the battles, your horse fell so you used the horn and called Araxa. The Romans discovered it many years later.”

“But if I died in that battle, how come you guys didn’t take it?” asked Alex.

“Araxa killed us all,” said Katja. “And then, after the battle, you died too. You should’ve died when your steed did but you held on until the battle was over. Anyway, this is morbid. Enough about the stupid horn, let’s just go to the library.”

“What were all these buildings?” asked Alex.

“Shops and houses,” said Katja. “Often one building served both purposes. I assume that the trapped people here live in them. If I can only restore their consciousness, I’ll be happy. Then they can truly live here. And the next step will of course be freeing them.” They stepped around one of the zombie-like people, and Alex had to suppress a shudder at the vacant stare of the person.

“And we’re back to being morbid,” said Alex with a laugh. “Hard not to be in this place, though.”

“I wish it wasn’t like this,” said Katja. “Maybe it’ll be better in the library, though. At least there, there aren’t any people to remind me of what was.”

At last, they reached the great building that Katja had talked so much about.

“Woah,” said Alex, gazing at the huge structure. “It’s…”

“Amazing, right?” said Katja, grinning. “I knew you’d love this place.”

“I can see your influence already,” said Alex. The building was sandstone like everything else, but it was decorated with a large fountain out the front of it depicting a siren emerging from waves. The water spout was somewhere under her hair, with the result that the scene depicted was one of a siren with water rushing down her body from breaching the water. Her eyes were brilliant blue sapphires, and she was made of white stone.

“What can I say? I have always been a little dramatic,” said Katja, and tossed her hair.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere else in the world,” said Alex. “Are you sure we can just go inside?”

“It’s your place, love. Of course we can,” said Katja. “Even then, you knew that you would someday be born again and come back here. You probably even left a message for yourself, for all I know.”

“Now, that would be cool,” said Alex. She walked up the steps, still holding tight to Katja’s hand, and stepped into the library.

“It hasn’t changed at all,” said Katja, amazed at that. It had been centuries, after all, since anyone had set foot in here. Yet it was neither dusty nor damp, and everything looked as it had when the library had last been entered. The large mahogany doors had even been open.

“One of my powers involves creating a time bubble,” said Alex. “I do that when I read the rune stones.”

“Oh, believe me, I know,” said Katja. “A quickie for us is never a quickie.” Alex looked dumbfounded.

“Honestly, that never occurred to me, but wow,” said Alex. She shook her head, telling those thoughts that she would return soon. “Anyway, maybe I created a time bubble around this place.”

“Maybe. I do recall you declaring that you would never let such an atrocity befall another library,” said Katja.

“Wouldn’t it be weird if I met the past version of myself in here?” asked Alex. “Hmm. Actually, that might be fun.”

While Alex was busy thinking about orgies, though, Katja’s mind was somewhere else entirely. A time bubble had been created around this place, yet all of Fort Maria remained the same. Maybe, when the place had been built on Nova Alexandria, the time bubble had ruptured or been corrupted. It had certainly expanded. But she’d promised no more morbid thoughts, and she’d keep that promise.

“Come on, there’s a thing up here that I want to show you,” said Katja. She led Alex to the back of the library, past shelves and shelves of ancient knowledge.

On the back wall was a mural. It was large in height but not in width. It depicted the two of them, entwined in an embrace with hair that flowed eternally and no clothing to be seen. This one had colour, though, with light around Alex and darkness around Katja.

“Your influence again?” asked Alex.

“And yours,” said Katja. “It was your idea. I just added an artistic flair. And the title.”

“The Dark and the Soul,” Alex read from the inscription at the base of the mural. “Wow. This is just… amazing.” She grinned at her girlfriend, and Katja kissed her.

“You can go look at your books now,” said Katja, and laughed at Alex’s delighted expression. She looked like a kid in a candy store.

While Alex ventured deeper into the library, Katja took a seat in one of the comfortable little alcoves. It was so hard to be happy here, but seeing Alex’s happiness definitely helped.


End file.
